These online tools convert PDF documents into either HTML or ASCII text, which can then be read by a number of common screen reader programs. These tools approximate the logical reading order of the text in an Adobe PDF document and reformat it into a single column of text. This solution provides three benefits:

• Visually disabled users can use familiar applications, screen readers and Web browsers.
• PDF files can be accessible on any platform supporting Web browsers and screen readers.
• Some of the problems screen readers have reading documents with complex layouts are overcome.

These tools work best on documents in English. Documents in European languages, such as French or German, should convert fairly well with the exception of symbols that cannot be represent by text-based formats, such as umlauts. Languages requiring double-byte characters, such as Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, are not supported.

Following is a brief overview of the online conversion tools available to transform PDF documents to other formats. For more information about how these tools convert the files, go to more about online conversion.

Web-based forms submission tool

If the Adobe PDF file is on the Internet, users type the URL into an electronic form and select the "Get This PDF Document as HTML" button. The document will be converted on the fly to HTML and will be returned immediately to the Web browser. How to convert PDF files using Web-based forms.

E-mail submission tool

If the Adobe PDF is on the Internet, users can submit the URL of a PDF file via e-mail to convert it to HTML or ASCII text. PDF files that are on a local hard disk, local CD-ROM, or local area network, can also be converted by attaching the PDF file to an e-mail message. The converted results are returned in the body of a new mail message in a matter of minutes. How to convert the PDF using e-mail.

More about online conversion

Using either the web-based form or the e-mail submission tool, when access.adobe.com converts PDF to HTML, all existing hypertext links are converted into HTML links. This includes intra-document links as well as links to other documents on the Internet. Extra HTML links are also created to enable easy navigation between pages. The very first line of the document will contain at least two of these special links:

• "Document Body" is a special link to the start of the body of the document.
• "Page Navigation Panel" is a part of the document that contains links to each page of the document. For example, if the document has five pages, the Page Navigation Panel would have links called 1 2 3 4 5, each corresponding to its respective page.
• If the PDF document contains Acrobat bookmarks (these are different than the bookmarks associated with the browser and are like an electronic table of contents feature), these will be converted to a "Document Outline" that contains HTML links corresponding to the original Acrobat bookmarks.
• Between each page of the document, links are inserted to make it easy for you to move to the next and previous page.

Download Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Accessible Adobe Acrobat Reader download - Download an Adobe Acrobat Reader that supports screen readers using pages that are text-based and designed for accessibility.